One of the area's worst rush-hour roads will get a $6.1 million overhaul to help ease congestion.

A project that would create additional lanes and widen parts of Dunmore's Blakely Street and O'Neill Highway corridor is still in the design phase and scheduled to go out to bid next fall, said Michael Taluto, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. Work would start in spring 2015 and run through spring 2016.

The PennDOT project description highlights eight zones that planners intend to overhaul along the approximately 1.6-mile stretch.

"It will definitely improve service and keep the traffic flowing more smoothly," Mr. Taluto said.

The plan calls for upgrading traffic signal equipment, pavement markings, drainage, sidewalks and disabled access along the corridor. Crews will also regrade some intersections to help motorists avoid "bottoming out."

East at Blakely's intersection with Drinker Street, the plan calls for widening the street to provide a northbound right-turn lane onto East Drinker Street and lengthening the westbound turning lane on East Drinker Street.

PennDOT plans "minor widening" to provide left-turn lanes from West Warren Street, where the Dunmore School District is located, onto Blakely Street, and another left-turn lane from Blakely Street to West Warren Street.

Continuing east around Blakely Street's intersection with Jessup Street, crews will "extend dual northbound lanes to reduce queue," and then define a pedestrian route where Blakely Street becomes the O'Neill Highway and intersects with Interstate 81.

The other planned significant change in the road and traffic flow would come around O'Neill Highway's intersection with the Keystone Industrial Park and University Drive. The plan calls for realigning O'Neill Highway left-turn lanes there and some minor widening to improve the dual left-turn lanes from the park onto the O'Neill Highway south.

Borough council recently agreed to maintain new and upgraded sidewalks that PennDOT plans to install near the Dunmore Shopping Center, Price Chopper and the Keystone Industrial Park/University Drive area.

Salvatore Verrastro, president of Dunmore Borough Council, called the project a positive development for the borough that should make for "smoother lines of traffic."

The national transportation research group TRIP recently ranked Blakely Street between Jessup and Cherry streets as the worst rush-hour commute in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. The organization estimated wasted time and fuel costs to commuters who regularly drive those streets at about $56 a week.

Still, Mr. Verrastro said the drive through the area isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter

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